Doula-Etymology and history of usage

The word doula comes from Ancient Greek δούλη (doulē), and refers to a woman of service. In Greece, the word has negative connotations, denoting “slave.” For this reason, some women performing professional labor support choose to call themselves labor companions or birthworkers. Anthropologist Dana Raphael first used the term doula to refer to experienced mothers who assisted new mothers in breastfeeding and newborn care in the book Tender Gift: Breastfeeding (1973). Thus the term arose initially with reference to the postpartum context, and is still used in that domain. Medical researchers Marshall Klaus and John Kennell, who conducted the first of several randomized clinical trials on the medical outcomes of doula-attended births, adopted the term to refer to abor support as well as prenatal and postpartum suport.